Battle of Bosworth Field

The Battle of Bosworth Field (22 August 1485) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses. The Lancastrian army, commanded by Henry Tudor, defeated the Yorkist army of King Richard III of England, who was killed in battle; Henry won the title of King of England on the battlefield, the last English monarch to do so. The battle marked the end of the rule of the House of York and the rise of the House of Tudor.

History
On 7 August 1485, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond arrived unopposed on the southwest cosat of Wales, intending to seize the throne for himself. As a descendant of Catherine of Valois, the mother of the late Lancastrian king Henry VI of England, Tudor had a rightful claim to the throne. He gathered support as he made for London, and his army was intercepted by King Richard III of England's army at Market Bosworth in Leicestershire.

Richard initially had numerical superiority, starting out with 18,000 troops. However, Thomas, Lord Stanley and his force of 6,000 men defected to Henry's army, the Earl of Northumberland did not engage in the battle, and many of the Duke of Norfolk's men fled the battlefield after facing stiff resistance from the Earl of Oxford's men. Abandoned by his men, King Richard gambled everything on a charge across the battlefield to kill Henry and end the fight. However, Richard found himself surrounded by Stanley's men, and he was killed in battle. After the battle, Henry was crowned King of England below an oak tree in nearby Stoke Golding, and the Tudor dynasty emerged as the winners of the Wars of the Roses.